Chapter 3

Daniel was so excited about their date tonight. It wasn't going to be all that expensive, just a local restaurant here in town that they were going to, but it was their first date, and he was happy to have someplace for them to go. He even washed the car and cleaned it up so that they'd not have to walk there.

Since Cassie, too, was living at his house with the other women and Luke, he didn't have to go all that far to get her. Just waiting in the living room with Luke while he read the newspaper. He thought it was funny that the kid enjoyed reading the daily goings on in the world. The kid was brilliant, too. When Cassie came down the long staircase with Sen right behind her, he could only stare in awe at how beautiful she looked, all dressed up.

"You look lovely." Cassie did, too. She had on a black silky dress with a beautiful slit up the side and a tiny little handbag that she told him was empty. She told him that she wasn't entirely sure what to carry in something so tiny. He laughed.

"So you're not bringing your phone so that someone might call you? Brilliant. It might not have worked anyway. I had to make sure that no one was having dinner there too, that was hooked up to a heart monitor or anything like that. You know, because of the freaky thing that happens to me when I'm around electronic equipment."

"I wouldn't have thought of that. I guess you're used to checking for things like that. Do they have a way to fix that for you?" Daniel told Cassie that he didn't want it fixed. It made for him not being recorded, not to mention he sort of liked being different. "Good thought. Yes, brilliant again. All right. I'm ready to go if you are."

The car was a great idea, he realized, when it started to sprinkle. Once they were in front of the parking lot, he let her out and pulled into the lot to park. Cassie had waited on him and he was glad for that. Having her go into a place with the shooter around that might well be gunning for her could have been just the thing that would ruin their meal, he thought with a grin. Pulling her chair out and helping her to get closer, just like his mom had taught him, Daniel sat down at his place setting and smiled. This was going to be the first of many dates, he decided.

Before ordering their meal, they were brought out rolls and butter to munch on. He'd never been a big bread eater and was surprised when Cassie said that she wasn't either. They both ordered a vegetable platter filled with cheese and crackers as well as a plethora of raw vegetables too. They enjoyed it better than they would a salad, he thought and was glad that they were brought a refill before they ordered.

There were hometown things on the menu. There was homemade chicken pot pie, his favorite as well as meatloaf. Cassie had asked if the potatoes were real, and the woman waiting on them just tisked at her. They all three got a good laugh out of that. For dessert, there were things like cobbler, pies and cakes. And a note that claimed if you were on a diet, they wouldn't tell if you didn't. Daniel thought that was going to be his motto every time he came here to have dinner.

The dinner was fantastic. He'd always loved home-cooked meals. Since he'd had the pot pie, which he would swear was big enough for an entire family, and Cassie had the meatloaf, they were both groaning when they finished up. Since they were both sharing their food with each other, he was going to have the meatloaf the next time they came. He was told by Molly, the nice woman who waited on them, that tomorrow, if there was any left, there would be cold meatloaf sammiches. She did call them sammiches for lunch. He was both looking forward to that and not at the same time. He was just too full to think that he'd ever eat again.

Once the plates had been taken away, they sat there talking about what they had been doing before coming here, and he was glad to hear that she wanted to stay in the government jobs for as long as she could. They were still looking for the person that ordered the hits on her and her brother but for now, they were watching everyone that came around them.

"I have a pension right now that I'm being paid from. I also have insurance money too that is coming to me. The government is paying me too for the work that I'm doing for them while here. I'm enjoying it better than I think I ever did before." She told him that they were sending her cash now so that she'd have some money to use. "When people mess with your livelihood, I don't think that they think about all the issues they're messing up for you. Like having money in your accounts, your apartment, or house. When I moved here, I was lucky in that Caleb had already purchased me a house so that I could be close to them all or I don't know what I would have done. I'd been working undercover for the last sixteen months and had just ended it when I was called to help you and your brother."

"I was working for a real estate broker. Taking aerial shots of houses that they had on the market. We were watching houses to find the drug ring that was thought to be going on. However, there was plenty going on at the offices too. I've submitted my reports to Wilhem about what I'd been able to find." He could tell that something occurred to her when she looked at him. "Bradley had found something disturbing when he'd been working. He brought me in on it by showing me his laptop." She tried to think what it had been, but all she could remember was something about the doors to the house.

"Don't think too hard, or it won't come to you. That's what happens to me. The moment that I stop thinking about it, everything comes to me in a rush. Just let's talk about dessert. Do you like pies or cake for dessert?" She answered him. "I like cake too, but not as much as I like fruit pies. They're especially good when it's chilly outside, and the wind is blowing hard. With, of course, homemade ice cream."

"My parents never cooked. But we had a cook in the house that was from the south. And she cooked like that, too. Sweet tea was always in the fridge. There was always homemade bread to go with all our meals." She laughed, and he smiled back at her. "Breakfasts were her specialty. Biscuits and gravy. Fried potatoes with grits. My dad never cared for most of the things that she cooked for my brother and me, but we ate it right—we were going to meet up and go over the notes. He'd found something about a couple of houses that were drop places for drugs. Or so he thought. Just after that, he was shot. They must have had a bug planted on one of us, now that I think about it. I had been shot, too, but I didn't realize it. I had to make a call. To pick us up. That's when you were picked up as well."

"You don't think it was a drug drop?" She told him that she wasn't sure of a lot of things as they strolled around the streets as twilight was beginning to show. "Do you happen to know where the house is? I mean, we could go there and see what we can find if you think that will help you."

"He saved everything to a cloud service. Why didn't I remember that before? I guess it doesn't matter now. But we'll…I need a secure service. One that can't get out to anyone but the cloud." He told her that Joey, as well as Sebastian had them. "You think that they'll let me use it?"

"I think they'd fall all over themselves to help you out. They really like you, honey." He pulled her into his arms and held her. Whispering in her ear, Daniel told her that he loved her. He looked around to see if anything looked out of place. Now he was terrified for her safety. She looked up at him just as he was pulling away from her. "What?"

"I just thought of something." She took his hand and led the way for them to walk by the restaurant. "We'll come back for the car. I want you to…I'm not sure what you can do, but I have to talk to you privately."

As he pulled her into an alley quickly so that he could pull her into the darkness that was there, a man walked by them. Daniel was terrified, wondering how long he'd been following them. He wasn't concerned about if the man was recording him but the simple thought of him being close enough behind them made him realize that they should have taken better care when out in the open like they were. When he passed by the alley going in the opposite direction, Daniel pressed her closer to the brick wall and whispered for her to stand still.

Following the man who was headed back the way they had come, he was surprised that he entered the restaurant that they'd left. Wondering how much information the staff would tell the man about them, he slipped into the place and stood in the darkened door front. Daniel had missed the first part of the conversation but he was there in time to hear the man getting frustrated.

"They were just in here. A couple. The man is dark-haired, wearing a dark suit. A clean-shaven beard, too. Earring in his right ear." When he described Cassie, he was more worried than before. "She had on a dark dress, heels and had one of those useless purses that women carry—"

"If you got that much information about them, then how come you didn't ask them who they were? Look, they ate, paid their bill, and left. We don't take a survey when someone comes in here to eat. You should have known more about them if they were your friends, like you said." He had to laugh. Molly was getting pissed off, too, he could tell. When asked about if they used a credit card, she told him that they paid cash. "Like a normal person does. They didn't take up all my time either, asking stupid questions that I done already told you, I didn't know who they were. Go on now. I've got customers. Paying customers I gotta take care of."

The man walked right by him, not even looking to see who he was. As soon as he left, walking to the parking lot where their car was, it occurred to Daniel that he'd not seen them arrive. When he pulled out of the lot, Daniel made his way out of the building and behind it. He was going to come up to the alley that Cassie was in from that way. She met him about a quarter of the way there. Pulling her into his arms, he held her tightly against his chest as his heart started to beat a little slower.

"I should have told you this sooner, but I love you, too, Daniel. I didn't think that it would be possible again for me." He kissed the top of her head and kept his eyes out for the man. He also told her what had happened in the restaurant while he'd been in there.

"We'll leave the car here until later if that's all right with you. I'll have one of my brothers come with me, and I'll pick it up then." She told him to have one of his brothers, one that didn't have a beard to drive it home. "Good idea. Yes, I like that. I think that my heart is better now. Just…I feel really bad that I didn't even think about keeping you out of sight. I'm truly sorry for that, love."

"It's fine. I didn't think about it either. But this makes us aware that they're closer than we thought they might be." Yes, he thought that was good to know. As they made their way to the house, they both kept their eye out for anyone that they didn't know. It wasn't until they were about two blocks from their home that Tabby stopped beside them and told Cassie to get into the car.

"I'm going to walk with Daniel and you head to my house. I've been digging into things at home, so I might have some information that you might not have." As soon as Cassie got into the car and drove off, Tabby looked up at him. "You're in love with her."

"I am. I don't want anything to happen to her either." Tabby said that she didn't either. But she had some information that she was going to tell him. "Can we wait to get to your house? I don't want to have you have to repeat everything."

"Of course." As they were walking along, hand in hand in the event that someone was watching them. She talked a little about July. "She called the house earlier tonight. I guess she was having second thoughts about leaving her mother the way that she had. Beatrice hadn't been the best of parent to her and after talking to July a little, I told her not to worry about us or her mother, we'll take care of her."

~*~

Cassie was so nervous she had to ask Tabby to repeat herself several times before she finally changed the subject to talk about July Miller, not daughter but daughter-in-law to Beatrice Miller.

"Beatrice came to stay with July just after her son was murdered. Him being at the wrong place at the wrong time as it turned out. He and July had only been married for a short time. Just a little over one year. July, taking it hard that her husband had been killed by a robbery at the local quick service down the street, Beatrice had moved in for a few days and never left. After a while, July told me it just got to be easier to let her have her way rather than fight with her. July said that Beatrice had knocked her around quite a bit before she just went along. I don't know that I would have, but she told me that was only her first mistake about Beatrice." Cassie asked Tabby how she'd become to be in charge. "She didn't think that there was any money to be had from his death. It's just that July never told her about it. There was an insurance settlement as well, as she was paid nicely after the store manager of the market was directly responsible for the death of the three people in the place when he'd had it robbed. Not only did she get a great deal of money, but July also ended up with a stipend paid to her monthly from his insurance that his mother had taken out on him when he'd been a child. Beatrice took that money all for himself and lived off of July until the day she left. Even the house, which was July's before marrying Stephen, was something that Beatrice didn't know anything about."

"What was she doing coming here to claim Luke then?" Tabby explained that Beatrice thought that, like when her son had been killed, she'd get the money that July was getting from Olivia's death. "That's the only reason, then, why she came to claim Luke and Ava, the youngest two of Olivia's children? No doubt she would have tossed them aside when she got them home and the money started coming in. What about her heart attack? Had she been ill before this?"

"Yes. According to July, even before her son had been killed, Beatrice was using the power of her bad heart whenever she could. Having had four strokes during the time that she lived with July, the doctor told her that it was only a matter of time before she had one that she wasn't going to be able to blow off like she had been. She was just lucky, according to July, that she'd been someplace that had a good vascular unit so that she could have gotten good enough care that she didn't die. But as it stands right now, she's going to be hooked up to the machines that she is on now because that's the way that she wanted it. Beatrice, I mean."

"What's she going to do now that she's had a change of heart?" Tabby explained to them both. "She'll have her transported to their hometown and have her put in a home there. I guess I'd do the same thing. But I didn't care for her at all. I can't imagine how ugly it would have been living with her all this time."

"I agree." Tabby handed her a plate with a scone on it. "You're in love with Daniel, aren't you?"

"Yes, but I wish that…someone is out to end my life, and I don't want anything to happen to him. I'm terrified that he'll take chances keeping me safe that might well get himself hurt. Or killed. But today, I thought of something. Something that might not have occurred to me if he'd not said that he loved me. Daniel said the same thing to me when he was in the van. He didn't say that so I knew, then that it had been code." Tabby asked her if she knew what the code meant. "I do now. I forgot…it doesn't matter when I remembered, but that I did. I have to go to my house and look something up. Had he not…I love him too, you see, and when I thought about Bradley saying it to me, I remembered that we had a work code. His was that he loved me. I would have said to him that I had him a gift. Those are two things, that he loved me and that I had bought him something that we wouldn't have done. Saying I love you to anyone is the same as signing a death warrant. He had something hidden at my house that he didn't want anyone to know about."

"I didn't find that you owned a home while I was digging into your life." Cassie told her that was the point, that it was a secret. "I suppose it would be really stupid to have it out there that you had a place to hide. All right. How do we get there, and when are we leaving?"

"You're not." Cassie laughed when Tabby pouted at her. "You're too gun-ho to be out and about around where I lived. I don't want you hurt either. I'll have someone that I can trust to pick it up. The problem is that there is only one male in this household that I trust completely. I've not been around the others all that much. But I think that Toby will be in and out before I even know that she's there."

"Toby." Cassie nodded, telling Tabby that she knew Toby from her green beret days. "I only recently found out that she'd been one. I guess if you have to trust someone, it would be someone with her abilities. If I were you, and I know you're smart enough to understand this, but she should take Daniel. That way, there isn't going to be anyone recording her while around and in your home."

"I was thinking that too. Do you think that he'll do it for me?" Cassie laughed when Tabby snorted at her. "I guess that was a silly question. I'll have to talk to them both to get them set up. Christ, I don't even know where to look in my house. It's about as big as the one that you guys live in."

It took over four hours to get the plan in motion. Not alerting anyone else in the family nor in Washington as to what was going on, she gave them all the keys that they'd need to get into the place without any trouble. She was going to have to take care of her brother's things as well. But not right now. She was still hurting at his loss, and she didn't think that it would help her any to have to put his home on the market right now. It was a lovely home, one that she'd only been in once but it was enough for her to remember that her brother had loved his home as much as she did hers.

Toby dressed as a realtor was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. Not only did she have a gray wig that sported highlights like a great many women did at the age she was trying to get, but she also had on trendy glasses as well as a huge assed bag that held all the printed information that was needed to show Daniel her home. She also was armed.

Not just with her service weapon, but her glasses had a camera on them so that she could see what she saw, a Glock with several clips that were under her suit coat, and a wire, just in case, she told them. The fact that Toby was talking to herself, even before getting out of her car, made it easier for anyone listening to understand that when she was asking her questions, it was simply going to be Toby talking to herself.

Toby was going to go in first, check the house out then Daniel would come there to have a look around with the idea to see if he wanted to live there with her. As soon as her ear piece sounded that Toby was speaking to her, Cassie asked her if she could go to the big office on the main floor.

"Oh my, what an office this is. I have to remind myself to ask if the furniture stays." Cassie told her that it did unless Daniel didn't like it. "I'd take this sucker for myself if I were given the chance. This is exquisite workmanship."

"I'll let him know when you guys get back. Now, there are several volumes of smut books on the shelf on the bottom of the second bookshelf. They're by my fav author, Kathi S. Barton. Have you read anything by her? If not, then you should. The second book in the series called Aaron's Kiss, there should be a bookmark." Toby was talking about how nice the covers were and how smutty. "Yes, they are. Did you find the mark?"

"I wonder what this is? It just fell out of the book." She asked her to look at the marker so that she could tell her where to go next. Without saying a word, Toby put the marker up in front of her face, and Cassie was able to read it. She sent her to the basement to look in the wine cellar. Once she found the mark there, she sent her on several errands around the house until she collected the last one. "Christ, this is better than hunting for Christmas gifts when I was a kid. Oh, look, Daniel is here. I can't wait to show him the house."

Showing Daniel the house, they couldn't speak to each other. She had expected the fact that the earpieces wouldn't work but it still frightened her when the earpiece just suddenly cut off. Waiting two hours, that was the time limit that she was given, Cassie watched the monitors with Joey and Caleb for when they'd show up to each room. As soon as it looked like Daniel entered one of the many rooms, the camera would blip out and the screen was blank.

When the camera came back on that was watching the backyard and pool area, she felt like a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Not that they were out of the woods yet, but she was happy that they were one step closer to getting things resolved to get her life back. Toby, sounding like she was speaking to herself again, said that it was great that the young man was excited about looking through the house on his own. She also, very causally, said that she had it. Hopefully, once she got the message from Toby, she'd be able to narrow down who was after her and who had killed her brother. Otherwise, she wasn't sure what she was going to do.

Daniel came back first. He said that he'd been followed to the house, but they didn't stick around. Once he parked in the long driveway, the car had moved on. It was, he thought, the same man that had followed him before. He was glad now that Harlin had gone with him. He kept him centered, and they spoke about how it was going to be the perfect house she'd heard for their brother. The two of them looked more alike than any of the other half-brothers and she was happy that they both seemed to think it was a wonderful home to live in.

Once they were back at Caleb's home, she tried to brace herself for whatever Bradley had left her. The first thing that hit her was that the note was in his handwriting. It should have been, of course, so she'd know that it was from him. However, looking at his strong handwriting, which looked like he'd taken lessons from a doctor on how to write, she brought it to her heart and held it there.

It hurt her when she thought about how she'd lost Bradley. She wasn't feeling his loss as much as she did before, of course. Nor did she think that she had quite the same kind of mental breakdown that she had when her husband had been killed. Having Daniel around, just being beside her when she held the envelope, made her feel like she could carry on. Or, at the very least, not be so hurt thinking about how he was gone and she was here all on her own without him.

"Oh, Bradley," she whispered to herself as she opened the envelope. There were several folded sheets of paper in the bright green envelope. Taking them out, one at a time, in order of the letters on the front of each one, she had fourteen 8 x 10 sheets of paper and smaller to put together from their code. Daniel asked if he could help. "I have to start with fourteen being ‘a'. Then fifteen would be ‘b'. The message will be a jumble of letters and codes in these notes that I have to start with. So ‘a' being fourteen, like I said, I know that the first of the sheets of paper will have fourteen numbers on them in the order that I have to decode them."

It took her nearly two hours to decide which sheet came next. Then to write down the codes inside of them. It wasn't that complicated, but it had been so long since she'd done something this way. After another six hours and some minutes, she laid them all out on the bed and read what it said. Cassie looked at Daniel with shock on her face. He was wearing the same thing on his own.

"I guess I have an idea who it is that wanted us dead. And the why of it as well. This must have taken him weeks to figure out." Daniel asked her how sure she was that he was right, nervous as she was about who it had been. "Bradley never would have sent this unless he was sure about the motive and the person."

"Well, I guess we need to make some plans to get him arrested." He grinned at her. "I hope you have a better plan than I do. I just want to find a dark corner and hide out."

"I have a plan. I don't think that you're going to like it, but I do have one. It's a scenario that Bradley and I played around with when we were not working. It'll work. I know it will." He nodded and asked her what he needed to do. "I'm going to lay it all out for you in one second. Daniel Watson, will you marry me?"